Wednesday morning, we had breakfast at the lodge again and then headed back into Great Sand Dunes National Park. We saw some pronghorn grazing on the drive in.
We parked just outside the campground at the end of the paved road. There was a nice view of the dunes from the parking area.
The very top of the highest mountains were shrouded in clouds.
Hiking through the campground, we got on Sand Ramp Trail and followed roughly parallel to Medano Pass 4WD Road. There were some prickly pears along the trail.
We also spotted a mule deer.
We turned on Dunes Overlook Trail and headed up towards the overlook.
The clouds had started to clear over the mountains but not completely.
From the overlook, there was a great view of the dunes and Medano Creek far below.
After a break here, we headed back down to Sand Ramp Trail.
The trail had panoramic views of the dunes and mountains.
At the spur to Indian Grove Campsite, we got on Medano Pass Road to make a loop.
In a short ways, the trail began to follow Medano Creek closely.
The creek wasn't really flowing too much yet this early in the year and there were still patches of snow on the creek.
The Castle Creek Picnic Area had real nice views of the creek as it lightly flowed beneath the dunes.
Back on the road, we continued to Sand Pit and went out for another nice view.
Sand Pit Trail was a short connector from here to Point of No Return.
To avoid the occasional truck on the road, we took Sand Pit Trail.
There were more nice views from this trail.
At Point of No Return, we followed the road back to the parking area.
From here, we headed into Fort Garland and had dinner at Rendezvous BBQ. Staff were really friendly and the barbecue was great. Then we headed back to the lodge and enjoyed one more sunset over the Great Sand Dunes before going to bed.
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